Fifty Sentences for Molly and Carlos
by Priscellie
Summary: The courtship of Molly Carpenter and Carlos Ramirez, in fifty sentences wordprompt style.  Bookverse, 1475 words.


**Title:** Fifty Sentences for Molly and Carlos  
**Rating:** PG  
**Fandom:** Dresden Files bookverse, as Molly and Carlos don't even exist in the TV-verse. You TV-only folks don't know what you're missing!  
**Spoilers:** Through _White Night_.  
**Word Count:** 1,425  
**Disclaimer:** Molly Carpenter, Carlos Ramirez, and all other assorted characters belong to Jim Butcher. Let's hope he has as much fun with their sparkage in future books as we're having with them in the interim!

**Author's Note:** I took a somewhat unorthodox approach to the whole "fifty sentences" prompt thing. I jumbled up the order of the words and made the story into a single, coherent whole, rather than having the sentences be in the more traditional, disjoint format. I don't really feel this fic is as successful as my previous stories, but I still feel it was a useful exercise. Hope you guys enjoy it anyway!

Love as always to Kat/Rosethorn, my magnificent, prolific, and inspirational beta! Love also Terry and Choco for participating in my "write me deathless Molly/Carlos and I will send you actual brownies" fanfiction challenge.

#08: When Carlos meets Molly, she's a mess, clinging to Harry's side—one in a **thousand** damsels in distress that need to be rescued.

#47: He lies under oath, downplaying the **harm** she wrought and exaggerating the likelihood of her friends' recovery, but he mostly does it for Harry's sake, not hers.

#23: He had to grow up fast, and it shows: she's seventeen—only six years younger than he is—but he initially thinks of her as a **child**.

#13: This notion of her doesn't **change** until several months after the trial, when he interrupts one of their lessons and sees her in her element for the first time: strong and confident, and definitely not just a kid.

#29: Years later, he will lie awake with her in his arms and wish he'd helped **save** her back then for the right reasons.

#18: She doesn't think twice about him at first—there are much more pressing matters commanding her **attention**—but in the weeks to come, she begins to wonder about the young Spanish wizard Harry trusted with their lives.

#22: Her relationship with the Council is understandably strained, but men like him and Harry help reassure her that they're not all as **mad** as the Merlin.

#33: Harry almost never wears his, but Carlos is wearing it almost every time she sees him—it's because of him that she **never** comes to fear the grey cloak.

#21: She knows the first time he intruded on a lesson was an accident, but by the fifth and sixth times… a **fool** could figure it out.

#40: She learns later that Carlos offered Harry to give her private veiling lessons; Harry scowled and counter-offered to give him a private lesson in **History**, comma You're.

#14: After years playing the young, handsome Casanova of a Regional **Commander**, he finds he's almost grateful to the succubus for exposing his charade.

#24: **Now** he can be honest with himself—he's not just flirting with her because it's expected of him.

#07: Two men enter the Raith estates, so when Molly comes back to pick them up at Harry's signal, her breath catches in her throat when there is only **one** man there waiting for her.

#02: The hospital room is sterile and **cool** and absolutely silent, the traditional beeping medical equipment shunted away into a smoking heap in the corner.

#12: She sits at his bedside, hugging her knees to her chest, **waiting** for him to wake up.

#37: Hours later, she sneaks out of his room under a veil when Harry unwittingly intrudes upon her vigil, and Carlos has been spirited away by Listens-To-Wind and Martha Liberty by the **time** she arrives the next morning.

#26: She is disappointed that she didn't get to tell him **goodbye** when he was actually conscious.

#16: Her feelings put her in a bind: she realizes she **needs** for him to know she was there, that she does care for him, yet at the same time she is desperate to keep her attentions a secret.

#31: He returns home to heal, but she keeps in touch, starting the conversation by asking for advice on how to wizard-proof a house that people actually have to live in; with his troop of siblings whose number rivals her own, he could write a **book**.

#20: The next time they see each other, he shows her a **picture** of his family and tells her about the restaurant they run together; she impulsively drags him to her home to meet the Jawas in person.

#03: In each other they find comfort and a certain kinship, which isn't particularly surprising to those around them—they're both **young**, attractive, and living under the constant threat of early death.

#01: She invites him to a club one night, and they let themselves get lost in each other, the **motion** of the crowd, and the persistent, primal pounding of the bass.

#06: **Gently**, roughly, kissing, biting, touching, tasting, gasping, moaning... and still virgins, technically.

#46: Molly's truck is an ancient piece of work, but her father is able to teach her enough to keep it **drivable** most of the time; its first trip over ten miles is to Los Angeles, California.

#34: The tape deck is shot and the radio only works when the weather is just right, so Molly breaks up the long drive by making the music herself, **singing** loudly and drumming on the steering wheel and dash, utterly without pretense.

#36: She is delighted to discover that historic Route 66 begins and **stops** in Chicago and L.A., and he jokingly declares it to be A Sign.

#28: She suggests they drive the full length of 66 together, even though it's some 500 miles longer than when taking the interstates, and would therefore cost a small **fortune** for gasoline.

#44: It is on one crisp July evening, driving through Afton, Oklahoma, as she belts out excerpts from Pink Floyd's _The __**Wall**_, that he realizes he is in love.

#17: "Pull over," he says suddenly, and when she does, he kisses her until her **vision** blurs.

#41: Since realizing the extent of her empathetic **powers**, she has cultivated mental barriers to keep from going crazy, but for him she lets them crumble to the ground.

#38: The clamoring of his heart answers the siren call of her own, and she is so inundated in the **wash** of emotion that she doesn't notice her own tears of happiness until he kisses them off her cheeks.

#05: She deliberately takes the **wrong** exit the next chance she gets, and she does her best to get them as far from civilization as she can manage.

#43: They park in the middle of an open field and lie back in the truck bed to watch the stars come out, basking in the glory of **God**'s creation.

#32: She glances at him out of the corner of her **eye** and sees that he's not looking at the sky—he's looking at her, and with more awe than she's ever seen anyone offer the heavens.

#19: She turns to face him, and they let the **soul** gaze begin… and feel all their pretenses evaporate.

#45: His awkward reverence for her body is a dead giveaway, and he knows it—he is **naked** before her, in more than one way.

#25: Atop him, straddling his hips, her face is in **shadow**, and her bleached hair forms a glowing white corona around her head.

#30: Her pale skin is cool and smooth and near-translucent in the moonlight, but she is not a **ghost**, nor an angel, nor a faerie, nor a vampire, nor any other creature from the Nevernever—she is Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter, and he loves her so much he thinks his heart will burst.

#11: She likes to reach out and try to sense and dissect his individual emotions, picking through the **blur** of consciousness until she can piece together a coherent representation of his emotional state.

#48: His trust in her and his desire for her to grow and succeed as a wizard provide a most **precious** opportunity, and through their intimacy she is able to control and understand her abilities in ways she could never learn from her more formal lessons.

#42: However, one day, when he is exhausted and hurting in the wake of yet another Red Court raid, she picks up on something new **bothering** him.

#35: She asks him about it, only to have him **suddenly** snap, "You're the sensitive, you tell me."

#50. Their first fight is petty and irrational and more senselessly hurtful than either of them could **believe**.

#49: She can't help but be aware of him, radiating his deep love and intense **hunger** for her like a beacon, but the emotion is tempered with anger and frustration and a hint of despair.

#27: She curses her gift—what good is feeling another's emotions when she can't discern the deeper **hidden** logic behind them?

#10: She finds herself longing to reach out and touch his mind and find that little switch that will make all the hurt go away... but she's **learned** that lesson before (and she's seen that episode of _Buffy_), so she surrounds herself with her brothers and sisters and friends until she trusts herself around him again.

#09: She apologizes for not respecting his mental personal space, and he apologizes for being the **king** of passive-aggressive jackasses.

#39: Slowly but surely, they rebuild the foundations their quarrel **tore** asunder.

#04: It certainly wouldn't be their **last** dispute, but the knowledge that their relationship could withstand such an upset gives them hope for their future.

#15: He falls asleep first, **holding** her tightly to him, and she is lulled to sleep by the beating of his heart and the slow rise and fall of his chest.


End file.
